BELAGAVI/HUBBALLI: The country is heading to another level, riding on 10 years of phenomenal growth in most of the sectors, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar said here on Wednesday. “The coming world will be based on Artificial Intelligence, chips, electric mobility, robotics etc. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the foundation he laid in the last decade, the nation is set to take a big leap forward in the coming days,’’ he added.
Inaugurating a new school of KLE Society in Chikkodi, 70km from Belagavi, on Wednesday, Jaishankar said the country’s economic ranking stood at 11 when Modi took over as PM and has reached number 5 in the last 10 years. “Modi’s guarantee is that the country will become number 3 in the world soon. But I am sure India will be the world’s top economy soon,’’ said Jaishankar.
‘Don’t believe global indices’
Interacting with students in Hubballi, Jaishankar said showing India in a poor light in various global indices was politics by other means, and parties that failed to do well domestically were making their friends abroad draft such reports.
In response to a student’s query on India being at the bottom on various global indices, Jaishankar’s retort was, “How much will you believe in them?” He added that there was always a political agenda behind them. On the country’s poor ranking in the hunger index, he said, “How can our neighbouring countries have a higher ranking when we export food to them?”
A student put the External Affairs Minister in a spot by asking about his diplomatic approach, like “offensive defence and defensive offence”. The minister said diplomacy was nothing but politics with foreign countries. “If the opposite country wants to push us to the wall, we change our approach from defensive to offensive,” he said.
Asked about working with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Jaishankar said being a minister in Modi’s cabinet was a tough job but also an enjoyable experience. The prime minister pushes to the extreme and also works in the same way, he said.
Earlier, he released a booklet on the performance of Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi during his two decades as Dharwad MP.